1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a container for dispensing fluent material, including slurries, high viscosity liquids and particulate matter such as gravel, sand and dust.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solid concrete walls are made from assembling wood or metal plates to form a mould having a void that is filled with concrete. Hollow concrete walls are commonly constructed by stacking and cementing hollow concrete blocks on one another. The concrete block wall""s interior surfaces can serve as a mould for wet cement that is poured into the voids and subsequently hardens to make the wall solid concrete. This is referred to as xe2x80x9cgroutingxe2x80x9d a wall, and the concrete slurry that is poured during grouting is referred to as grout.
Solid concrete walls, however they are made, are stronger than hollow walls. Furthermore, solid walls can have reinforcing devices, such as reinforcement bars and wires, inserted in the concrete prior to curing to further strengthen them. However, grouting walls is difficult work.
Conventionally, concrete walls and other concrete structures are poured or filled by pumping wet concrete long distances through hoses from trucks, or using the xe2x80x9cbucket and shovelxe2x80x9d method in which buckets are hand loaded, carried and dumped into the moulds. Both of these methods have disadvantages, including expensive labor or equipment and long completion times.
Alternatively, people have used hoppers with chutes that direct concrete, but such chutes are prone to overflow if the flow of concrete is stopped at the discharge end of the chute. The use of a pump and hoses is a cumbersome process that requires starting and stopping the pump, which does not immediately stop the movement of the flowing concrete in the hose due to the concrete""s inertia. A shutoff valve at the discharge end of hoses is necessary to immediately stop the flow. However, such valves are complex and normally do not last in the environment of wet concrete, even if they are cleaned, which itself is a difficult process. Concrete tends to harden on moving valve parts, eventually preventing movement and thereby rendering the valve useless.
Therefore, there is a need for a device that permits rapid, inexpensive and accurate filling of voids in block walls and other moulds. Such a device should limit the amount of spilled concrete, and permit maximum control for the person pouring the concrete.
The invention is an apparatus for containing and dispensing fluent material. The apparatus includes four main elements: a hopper, an elongated tube, an elongated auger and a hand-flexible hose. The elements cooperate in such a manner to overcome disadvantages in the prior art. With the present invention, the material drive member, which is the auger, does not need to be shut off during grouting when the operator needs to move to another opening. Furthermore, there is little or no danger of damage to the auger if large particulate matter, such as a stone, becomes lodged between the lands of the auger and the tube sidewall.
The hopper has a first sidewall including a tube aperture a second sidewall, and two other sidewalls. All sidewalls have substantially equal length. The sidewalls are joined at four intersecting corners and define a material-containing chamber with an open top end for receiving fluent material.
The elongated tube is rigidly connected at a hopper end of the tube to the first sidewall of the hopper. The tube extends to an opposite, hose end of the tube spaced from the hopper end of the tube. The tube has a cylindrical tube wall including an interior surface that defines a tube passage. The tube passage is aligned with the tube aperture and extends from the hose end of the tube through the tube aperture to the material-containing chamber of the hopper.
The elongated auger is mounted within the tube passage and extends substantially coaxially with the tube from a first bearing mounted near the hose end of the tube, through the tube aperture to a second bearing, preferably a motor, mounted near the second sidewall of the hopper. A radial gap is formed between the outer surface of the auger and the interior surface of the tube wall.
The hose has hand-flexible sidewalls, an interior surface defining a hose passage and openings at opposite first and second ends. The first hose end is mounted to a hose mount formed on the tube near the tube""s hose end. The hose passage communicates with the tube passage.
During operation, the auger rotates, driving material from the hopper through the tube toward the hose. As the operator discharges material from the discharge end of the hose, the void into which the material is directed becomes full, necessitating moving the hose to another void. The operator merely pinches the hose closed with his or her hands and pulls the flexible hose to the next void. The auger need not be stopped during this movement, because flow through the hose is blocked by the pinched part of the hose, thereby stopping flow of material.